Golden Nuggets: Oregon Ducks Week Press Conference

It's Tuesday which means Tedford and company spent the afternoon discussing the weekend's upcoming matchup.  Tedford was joined by Mike Mohamed and Brock Mansion this week.

Tedford talks about the tremendous challenge his offense will have to overcome this week.

On whether Cal has enough offensive firepower to keep pace with Oregon
"We're going to find out. The thing is, they average over 50 points a game. That would be a huge feat for us to do that. I think we need to keep the score low and keep the game close to be there to win the game. It's got to be a low-scoring game. Not many people have outscored them in the 50s. The key lies in being able to hold them to a manageable number on offense."

After the jump Mike Mohamed and Keenan Allen expect to play this weekend, the Bears are fired up for the Oregon game, Cal men's basketball talks extensively with the media on Bay Area Media Day, Oregon's offense will now be all Thomas all the time since Costa is out, and women's soccer earns an NCAA tourney bid.

Mike Mohamed says the defense is excited to have the opportunity to play the number 1 team in the land.

On what it would mean to the team to knock off the No. 1 team in the country
"That'd be huge. It'd be a huge boost for the team. You know, we're the only team playing the number one team in the country this week. This is basically our BCS game. It's going to be awesome to just go out there and play them. If we do happen to knock them off, it would be a huge boost for morale."

On the team's enthusiasm in practice being at its highest so far this season
"If you can't get up for the No. 1 team in the country, you don't belong out there on the field. The energy was definitely really high. And guys were flying around, really excited for this one."

On reviewing last year's film against Oregon and the differences on this year's Ducks
"I think they're pretty similar. They've been kind of running the same system for as long as I can remember. I think the thing that's the most different this year is the tempo. You know, somebody makes a tackle and the next thing you know they're all lined up, already running another play. I think that's a little bit different than years past. They've always had the fast tempo, but this year they've kicked it into another gear. And, you know, they've really done well with it."

Football

• Cal stays at 6th in Ted Miller's Pac-10 power rankings.  Barring an upset or two, Cal will probably remain at 6th for the rest of the season.
• Keenan Allen's MRI revealed no damage, so he is expected to play this weekend.  Mike Mohamed's broken thumb shouldn't be an issue, as he is also expected to play.
  
• With the #1 team coming to Berkeley and after last year's embarrassing loss, the Bears are fired up about the Oregon game.
• Ted Miller expects Cal to earn a spot in the Sun Bowl.  Mark Schlabach hasn't changed his bowl projection in weeks: he expects Cal to play Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.  Andrea Adelson, however, expects a Cal-UNC Sun Bowl.
• Cal earns a smiley face from Ted Miller for finally earning a road win.
• Wilner gives Cal a B+ in the win over the Cougars.  He briefly previews the Oregon matchup and expects Cal's defense to perform well.  An upset isn't inconceivable, just unlikely...
• With Oregon's backup Nate Costa out for the year, Chip Kelly will have to burn freshman Bryan Bennet's redshirt if Darron Thomas is out for any period of time.  This means that even if Oregon is up by 150 points this weekend, Thomas will still be running the offense.  Oh joy.